did you see it? he dived between two players to head a cross, then when he realised he wasn't going to reach it, fell to the floor and started crying out for a penalty. even if he had connected with the ball, he'd still have gone over, and he didn't make contact with any other player.

He's a talented player, but he's a ****ing baby. Give me a guy like Zidane who I've never seen take a dive.

Yes, Zidane is a class act. I absolutely loved his performance against Portugal, especially in the 1st half. For a man who just turned 34, he's at the top of his game, and can esily out-maneuver players half his age. Just goes to show that experience is often better than youthful vigor!

Ronaldo did have an excellent game against France, especially to overcome the boos he got every time he touched the ball. Gave me a tiny bit more respect for him, but not much, considering he still whined like a girl.

Zidane is just incredible. He had a slump for a few years, and it looked like he had lost it, then this year he's just come out and absolutely blown everyone away.

Sooo... Zidane for player of the tournament?

Better him than one of the divers.

Every time I click on this thread, I expect it to have turned to people arguing about evolution and religion because it's so LONG.

Football is religion.
And the newest World Cup is its evolution.

Buffon shouldbe in the running too. As much as I hate the Italians, he's been brilliant in goal.

You know who isn't getting a best player award?

Ronaldo.

He's a baby. He doesn't deserve it.

Yes he does. The biggest crybabies are all the England fans that will blame anyone except Rooney for their loss. And it IS his fault.

Don't get me wrong. I wanted England to win the World Cup. But seriously, Rooney ****ed it up for them, not Ronaldo.

I'm not talking about a single incident. I'm talking about him as a player. Yeah, he's really talented, but he's a drama queen, a baby, is the first person on the field to take a dive, holds the ball too much, dribbles too much, tries to play a fancy game at the wrong time. That's why he doesn't deserve it. Not for one thing that happened in the game against England, but a series of things. If you look at the pervious winners, you'll see why he's not going to get the award for the best player in the tournament.

[QUOTE=IRG SithLord]Yes he does. The biggest crybabies are all the England fans that will blame anyone except Rooney for their loss. And it IS his fault.

Don't get me wrong. I wanted England to win the World Cup. But seriously, Rooney ****ed it up for them, not Ronaldo.[/QUOTE]
Bull****.

I don't swear much on Massassi, so you can see how much I disagree with this. I've seen this argument over and over on the GameFAQs forums, and it's stupid. I haven't talked to anyone who blames Ronaldo for England losing. Even the papers, who give out things like a dartboard with his face on it, don't blame him. They, and every England fan I know, blame the England squad or Sven. Both of which are valid complaints.

Sven was an awful coach. His tactics were abysmal, his team choices diabolical. And he had the gall to criticise the English forwards (Bent, Defoe, etc.) he didn't take, when he brought along Walcott and didn't even play him once. Not once did he look interested throughout the World Cup. I think one picture in the paper summarised it nicely: McLaren was up at the touchline shouting at the players, Eriksson was looking at the sky. I don't know how well McLaren will do for England, despite his successes with Middlesborough. Time will tell, I suppose.

The England squad of late has just not gelled as a team. A lot of people say that 'on paper' we have one of the best squads in the world; it's true. We have a mix of experience, and pure, raw talented youths. And yet bring them up to the world stage and they fail to shine. Has Gerrard ever really played for England with the passion and drive he has shown for Liverpool? I haven't seen it. Lampard was lethal from range in the Premiership, yet despite having the highest tally of shots he failed to score. Owen...I feel sorry for Owen. He has had extremely bad luck with injuries over the past year. Beckham is looking past his prime, even though he displayed a couple of the accurate set pieces we know him for. Defensively we have ('on paper') one of the best centre-back pairings in the world, yet look at how we defended set-pieces. The problem isn't Ronaldo, or Rooney, or bad luck. It's the team's.

Rooney didn't lose the game against Portugal for us, although his (unfair) dismissal might be seen to have put a dampener on our chances. In my opinion we played better with ten men, however the lack of firepower up front ultimately cost us.

To stop beating around the bush, Ronaldo doesn't deserve squat. For this simple reason: he'd be a bad influence. I, personally, don't want the next generation of talented footballers growing up with him as a role model. As many fancy tricks as he can perform, he's still a diving cheat, and a poor sportsman. And, let's face it, he hasn't provided much for Portugal now has he? 1 goal, from the penalty spot, and a number of selfish dribbles.

Wow, bit of a rant there.

As I was reading your post, Livid, Ronaldo took a dive, looked at the ref in mid air, then was down on the ground crying.

I'm surprised he only managed to do it once during the time it takes to read that

Boom! 1-0 to Germany. Bad judgement on Ricardo's part, but a cracking shot from Schweinsteiger.

2-0. Schweinsteiger's shot, but Petit's deflection makes it an own goal.

The first goal was something. I got a good replay of the shot from behind Schweinsteiger, and that thing was knuckling like crazy. It was floating away from Ricardo, then dipped back toward him after he dove. He was screened by a couple of players too, so he didn't see it coming until late.

Yeah, I just saw that replay too. Schwe-...the German player's shot curved something wicked. I'm going to have to start copying+pasting that guy's name...

That's what I did.

Schweinsteiger strikes again! He's having a great game.

3-1. Kahn didn't have a chance of saving that one. Beautiful cross from Figo.

There's your man of the match.

Soccer players are hot.

yes they are

Awww, at least we redeemed ourself with this last match.
And you can quit whining about Ronaldo possibly getting the Best Young Player award, we got it! http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060706/1/8mta.html

/me sings: "1 und 2 und 3 und '54, '74, '90, 2010
ja so stimmen wir alle ein.
Mit dem Herz in der Hand und
der Leidenschaft im Bein
werden wir Weltmeister sein."

Yeah, but it was hardly fair anyway. The winner was chosen by a panel - who would have looked at the popular votes. If it weren't for the email hijacking the vote then Ronaldo may well have won it. As it was, Luis Valencia was given a huge boost (don't know what the final result of that poll was). The panel who chose the winner may well have decided against Valencia on the basis that his popularity was manufactured, and presumably decided against Ronaldo because of the strong public pressure against him.

Are you aware of the fact that Ronaldo was winning because of a similar action? Scottish football fans set up a massive campaign to vote for Ronaldo, because of his part in Rooney's sending off.



The e-mail action you speak of was merely a counter-measure to stop this. But yeah, the outcome of the poll can hardly be regarded as fair with all those politics going on. I heard the FIFA had the final say though.

all nine of them?

they're all just bitter because scottish football is ruined

1 - 0 for France in the first few minutes.

Contentious penalty. When I saw it live I thought it was a foul, maybe not from the replays.

Wonder if France will go into their shells like they did against Portugal

They did, and they got scored on.

Personally I haven't heard anything about that. I don't think anyone really cares up here.

The papers just like stirring stuff up.

Great save by Buffon to deny Zidane in extra time.

OMG red card on Zidane! And boy he DESERVED it!!

Yeah, that was totally unexpected.

Not the red card, but what he did.

Good lord, I've never seen anything like that, on this stage in any sport! That was a horrible move on his part.

And Italy win the 2006 World Cup. Yay for the divers.

Oh well, at least Australia were beaten by the eventual winners

WAHOO!!!! YAY ITALY!!!

And of course, because the US was the only team to get a point against Italy, they rock too.

lolz teh french surrendered

****

out of all the teams i didnt want to win, it was those horrible ****ers.

i dont agree with what zidane did, but i bet that horrible itai ****er said something nasty.

i friggin hate the italian football team, they play the football equivalent of watching paint dry and then theres all the sly ****.

if i was zidane, as soon as i got the red card i would have headbutted that bloke again.